MAPUSA
Emphasising that the Congress has failed to carry out any development in the town, Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) Chairperson Ryan Braganza said Congress has never won in Mapusa and will never do in future.
He also said the development of the new bus stand will be taken up in earnest as the majority of councillors had given their sanction for the work.
“Let Congress tell us what they have done for Mapusa when they were in power. Congress has failed to win the trust of people. For the last 40-50 years, the Congress has never won in Mapusa and will never win in future,” Braganza said in a rare bout of aggression.
The MMC chairperson was responding to Congress charges that the MLA and the chairperson had failed to deliver in Mapusa.
Speaking further, Braganza said it was easy to make allegations but failed to understand where the Congress leaders were hiding when they were in power.
“That time, they were saying that the MLA was not from their party. There is no need for me to clarify whether the MLA or the chairperson has done anything. People of Mapusa know better,” he snapped.
On the Congress criticism over diversion of funds for new bus stand, the chairperson said 19 of the 20 councillors had passed the decision to take up development of the bus-stand.
“The bus-stand is important to people of Mapusa. It has to come up. And we will ensure that the work is taken up,” he said.
The MMC had recently resolved to divert an amount of Rs 3 crore from the 14th Finance Commission, initially allotted for construction of municipality’s administrative block, for development of the new bus-stand.
According to Congressman Sudhir Kandolkar, the administrative block was equally important and stressed the new bus-stand work should be taken up in toto instead of carrying out peace-meal work.
Kandolkar also opined that the Public-Private Partnership model for the construction of the new bus-stand could be pursued to tide over the financial crunch.
The MMC chairperson opposed the development of the new bus-stand on PPP model as it would deal a death knell to the municipal market.
“In PPP model, a mall is envisaged with 200 shops at the old bus-stand. The mall will lead to a parallel market which will kill our municipal market,” he opined.
Braganza gives clean chit to NGPDA
MAPUSA
Giving a clean chit to the North Goa Planning and Development Authority (NGPDA), Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) Chairperson Ryan Braganza said the PDA had no authority to delete names as ownership of plots and tenancy rights was with the revenue department.
“The NGPDA Member Secretary R K Pandita is close to me personally. He is an efficient officer. The MS has assured all cooperation to us,” Braganza said, defending the official against the allegations of Mapusa farmers who held NGPDA responsible for deletion of their names from the land use register.
“The farmers should make a list of the names which have been removed. I will see that all those names are restored. I am sure the MS will have no problem to include the names,” he added.
The chairperson also promised a delegation of 10 farmers to meet the NGPDA member secretary in his Panaji office.
“We are here to help people. I am ready to accompany the farmers to the office of NGPDA in Panaji,” he said.
